Volume 1 Chapter 1: A Whale of A Tale

(I do not own any images here except screenshots - the picture here taken from a Google Images page)

I looked at the locket that my adopted family had given me for my sweet sixteen birthday, which we celebrated in Wysteria. Yes, that's a weird place for a sky-faring family to go for a birthday party but thanks to the vines around Pigswick Academy it was quiet and beautiful and there was a small hostel just inside the campus for travelers who came by the skyways.
 
The image of what my father called my grandmother, Agnes Seabottom, who I was named after, were fuzzy and blurred but I saw what looked like a beautiful woman who had blonde hair, and she was carrying a baby which dad told me what him. Whenever I was in trouble, I looked at the pictures and whispered words of help to my long-lost grandma... And boy was I in trouble now!

Just then, as if answering a prayer, voices emerged from the stairs near my cell. I was stunned - these were not the clockwork guards, they were organic...

"Yar, check the hold, monkey!"

"Aye aye captain!"

A Monquistan saw me and waved to a pudgy man, a pirate captain from the looks of it. "This must be her!" said the monkey sailor.

 

 

The captain, who introduced himself as Boochbeard, interrogated me a tad about my origins. I told them about how the Armada attacked my parent's ship and they disappeared, how the hounds of Marleybone raised me through childhood and adolescence, and how I got on the bad side of the Armada when I defeated one of their soldiers in a duel to defend my best friend and ended up here.

"That is her!" proclaimed the Monquistan. "Clever Agnes Thatcher, the youngest swashbuckler maiden to sweep the seven skyways!"

I smirked widely. That wasn't really my name - my last name was actually Seabottom but my mother's maiden name was Thatcher and when they had disappeared a year ago and were assumed dead, I took her name to hide my identity from the Armada. It didn't really work, as I got seized and was being shipped to Marleybone for punishment.

"Well, I guess we need not fear your identity, lass," said the Captain, who bowed as he unlocked the jail cell for me. Just then, a cannon shot blocked off the front door. "Blast, those scurvy scum be making it hard on us to get ye out of here!"

"I don't know who sent you to save me, but thanks," I said. Just then, another cannon blast rocked the boat and ripped out the back wall of my cell. "Well hello Serenipidity..." I smirked as I climbed out of the cell and made my way around.

A cry from a nearby cell caught my attention as did the lever nearby. I pulled it and the door opened, releasing a horse warrior. I recognized the dress, he was from Mooshu. My parents told me about that place. He introduced himself as Subodai.

Together we escaped the ship, having to deal with some Battle Angels from the Armada. My steel daggers took out a couple of them quickly. I recognized their leader; Deacon, the infamous Spymaster of the Armada. I vowed I would disassemble the clock-work freak but now was not the time.

I took control of Boochbeard's ship and fled the exploding ship as a horde of Armada ships closed in and attacked. Soon we reached an island which I recognized - Skull Island, the home base of pirates all over the Spiral. I decided that I would become a pirate and avenge my parents and my honor, so I followed Boochbeard's advice and headed to the home of Captain Avery, the head of what could be called 'government' here. He told me he wouldn't help me unless I did the same, so I was sent to Skull Mountain to recover a jade amulet which was stolen by Fin Dorsal, one of Avery's traitorous men.

 

I met the gatekeeper who opened the gate to Skull Mountain for me and Subodai. We went down into the area and met with a real fox(no pun intended) called Bonnie Anne who told us that Troggies, a clan of tribal frog-men, were hurling gunpowder at the town. Me and Subodai took down a few of the frogs, and when I reported to Capt. Smollet, Bonnie Anne nodded.

"You seem pretty capable and I'm a girl of me word," she said. "Care to add another to your crew?"

I smiled. "Of course, Bonnie, as much as I like working with Subodai, the more the merrier!"

 
Together we skirted around the groups of pirates fighting off the Troggies and located (and in one case destroyed) the Troggies which were flinging gunpowder at the town. Capt. Smollet thanked up and told us to locate Livsey and Shepherd, two who were scouting the island to locate Fin.

Livsey was locked up in a flimsy bamboo cage but we found that the cage had its merits. Livsey said that one of the Troggy Shamans held the key, so we beat up more frogs until one coughed it up.

Now free as a gull, Livsey helped us out by sneaking into Skull Cave while we distracted the Piscean Cutthroat guards with a battle. These shark-men were dangerous as they were more prone to violence and girthier with muscle than the Troggies.

But we defeated some and lured them away long enough for Livsey to get what he needed, a note which told about something in the back of the shrine. "I do not fear the darkness," grunted Subodai. "Into Skull Cave we go!"

 

I agreed with him and we entered the foreboding cave. Inside we found a chest which had some loot, including a fine purple sur-coat which I decided to wear for a while. It complimented the tri-corner hat I found from a chest held by a Troggy. ^_^

We cut our way through the vines behind a waterfall and found a giant underground shrine. Subodai pointed to a tunnel that the Cutthroats must have made recently - it led to the bridge back to town and would be a convenient shortcut.

 

We located Shepherd in the shrine's inner halls and he told us that the water was blocking access to the inner sanctum, which was where Fin was obviously hiding. The sharks could breathe underwater, we couldn't, but Shepherd told us that some sharks had a key to a Troggy shrine where we could lower the water. We accrued the key(and fought some croakogators on the way, my bad) and invaded the shrine with some fellow pirates. They pointed out that the statues lowered the water, so I attacked two of them and someone else attacked the third, and the entire place drained dry. The hordes of Troggy people tried to stop us but dried up and died when the water was drained.

The halls were much easier to walk through with the water drained.

Shepherd helped us take down the treasonous shark, Fin, and I landed the final blow with my twin daggers. Once Fin was knocked down, the other sharks who were alive bolted the scene, leaving their leader to his fate. What cowards.

I find this text bubble from another player popping up hilarious. ^_^

Fin swore revenge as we escorted him back to Captain Avery's house. As the guards came to lock up the cruel shark criminal, Avery smiled at me. "You have proven your worth, sure as silver!" he said. "I'll hook you up with a ship so you can be a true pirate captain!"

I was yipping in joy when I saw the huge galleon and didn't stop until I reached the docks...

Only to crash when the dockmaster pointed out that this was Avery's ship and pointed me to a sad vessel which was barely more than a wooden raft with my flag on it. "Captain Avery has tricked us!" protested Subodai. "You must show him you are angry!"

I did go to Avery and give him a piece of my mind, but he jested and told me that he had fulfilled the letter of the accord - I did have a ship, even if it was just a raft.

He then comforted me with a tale about Captain Gunn. I laughed. "I know the story, my mom told me it when I was a wee lass..."

Captain Gunn was the greatest smuggler in the seven skyways - if he wanted something from your vaults, he would get it one way or another... but his greatest acheivement was smuggling a tree of Yum-Yum Fruit from Mooshu and cultivating it into orchards of the crop, using the fruit to aid in creating the drink a pirate dies for - Yum.

I was literally raised on the stuff - I was bottle-fed Yum as a baby by my mother! Who wouldn't know about the great smuggler who created the only drink a pirate asks for?

He was found dead not long after he retired and his Will and Testament (which held a map to the place where his treasure was) were lost...

"I have an associate who has the Will," said Avery with a smirk. "Go speak to Lady LaFitte, she will help guide you to the map."

I found directions to the swashbuckler's hideout where LaFette resided... and spotted another fine girl, even if she was as much a frog as Livsey. She introduced herself as Fan Flanders and offered to join my crew. I was a bit wary of letting a frog princess on board but when she said she had escaped from Newgate Prison, I whistled and nodded. It was next to impossible to get out of there. The last person who did so was quickly cut down by wizards in Big Ben. "Welcome to the team, Fan!"

This woman would prove to be one of my strongest mates for a very long time.

(This is a cool new update - now every pirate gets a 3rd companion before they meet the one in the tavern. If I do a bonus chapter in the future, I'll show you what the other extra companions are. Also, I made a reference to Wizard101 there. ^_^)

I then met Morgan LaFitte, who offered to train me in the ways of a swashbuckler. I did find that romantic and I had some skill in skullduggery. I started training with her and gained the skill to hide in the shadows and do more damage and avoid being seen.

(I didn't try out a Swash until recently and let me tell you - they are BROKEN. Hide in Shadows + Sneak Attack = MASSIVE DAMAGE. Agnes took out mobs that would have taken two turns to kill with this combo! And it only gets worse when she gets to the later levels...)

 

With a third companion in my roster, we went to the Kraken Skulls tavern and, after a brief parley wit the bartender, we were directed to the cellar where negotiations were breaking down between a mangy pirate and a lovely woman. (Well, mouse woman.) Things came to a head and the pirate attacked, so we rushed in to help...

Only for the scum to teleport away with the map! I swore some profanities as our group took out the rats who were left behind. Sarah thanked me and asked me to help recover the map. I agreed and she joined my crew, raising my roster to four.

 

The five of us chased down Ratbeard but we were too late - he had already set sail. Luckily, old Blind Mew told us that he was heading for his hideout in the Blood Shoals.

I got the leeway from the dockmaster and we were on our way. We made it without incident. The ship was rickety but it held together, which I guess was a small blessing. Sticking to the Wind Lanes also helped as the enemy ships and sky creatures didn't harass us when we were in them.

 

 

 

Despite the name, the Blood Shoals was a small town which had its share of people in it. We met a couple of people who asked us for succor, and I made a note to check on those leads later.

"We have no time to waste, Captain!" said Sarah. "Those rat tracks lead into that cave nearby... I bet they are still in there, we can get the will back!" We headed into the cave.

(Quick note here: I wanted to show off every side quest, but that would make each blog post so long that it would be the only post you can see on the blog! So I am skipping the side-quests in the blog. I did complete them all and got Agnes to Level 6 in doing so. Also, a quick note: Quests have been changed around in the newest update - the two you see here about Scuttles the crab man and that guy who lost his ring in gambling... those were actually Manny and Moe's requests before the update! Now Manny and Moe have new requests, which you will see in the next post. 6_^ Also, young Alex used to be in Skull Island but was moved here, probably because people missed his side-quest on their way to the Blood Shoals.)

Unfortunately I soon realized that there was another reason no tracks left the cave...

Well, this was becoming an interesting development...

{To be continued...}